1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to a dosimeter and a positioner for a laser tool such as a medical laser with a hand held hand piece. More particularly, the present invention pertains to a novel dosimeter and a positioning apparatus to be use with laser tools so that such tools may be efficiently and accurately used to achieve multiple, distinct treatments of objects to be treated with the laser tools.
2. Description of Relevant Art
There are many known laser tools, including many used for medical purposes, and it is known to treat objects in various ways using such known laser tools. For example there are several known medical lasers including CO.sub.2 lasers, ND-YAG lasers, KTP lasers, and argon lasers; and it is known to use such medical lasers in different modes including continuous wave mode where the laser beam is focused at the point of contact for cutting tissue and vaporization mode where the laser beam is not focused at the point of contact for performing medical procedures other than cutting, such as vaporizing a wart, undermining during facelift or blepharoplasty, etc.
It is often difficult to achieve a desired treatment effect, however, because most of the known laser tools are held and manipulated by hand, whereby it is difficult to precisely control many operational parameters of the laser tool during any given operation. Such operational parameters include target distance from the laser tool (the output lens thereof) to the object being treated, the power output of the laser tool, and the speed at which the laser tool is moved relative to the object.
In relation to medical laser tools, the factor of distance control has been partially solved by laser manufacturers who supply a distance guide which attaches the output tip of the laser tool and projects outwardly therefrom by a set distance corresponding to the focal length of the laser output lens with reference to FIG. 5, there is shown a conventional medical laser apparatus having a distance guide 101 on the output tip thereof. Thus, an operator using the medical laser will know that the laser beam output from the laser will be focused (and thus at its maximum intensity) on the tissue being treated when the projecting tip of the distance guide is also in contact or substantially in contact with the tissue.
As will be understood, however, such known distance guides are only useful when the distance guides are being used in a continuous wave mode for performing incisions, and not for the many other procedures involving use of a laser in its vaporization mode. Thus laser surgeons currently have little control over the very significant parameter of distance between the output tip of the laser tool and the tissue specimen being treated. Therefore such surgeons tend to perform a given procedure at different distances from day to day, and even from moment to moment during the same setting procedure. Such lack of distance control leads to inconsistent results, and to more significant problems such as scarring.
Additionally, such known distance guides do not otherwise assure a proper result or effect in any given operation, and do not assure consistently good results in similar operations, because such distance guides do not control the other significant operational parameters during a given operation, whether the laser is used in a continuous wave mode or a defocused mode.
The present invention has been developed to overcome the inadequacies and other disadvantages of known positioning devices for laser tools, and to generally fulfil a great need in the art for a relatively simple dosimeter and positioning apparatus which can be used with laser tools for reliably and consistently achieving excellent results.